Cryogenic vacuum pumps, or cryopumps, currently available generally follow a common design concept. A low temperature array, usually operating in the range of 4 to 25K, is the primary pumping surface. This surface is surrounded by a higher temperature radiation shield, usually operated in the temperature range of 60 to 130K, which provides radiation shielding to the lower temperature array. The radiation shield generally comprises a housing which is closed except at a frontal array positioned between the primary pumping surface and a work chamber to be evacuated.
In operation, high boiling point gases such as water vapor are condensed on the frontal array. Lower boiling point gases pass through that array and into the volume within the radiation shield and condense on the lower temperature array. A surface coated with an adsorbent such as charcoal or a molecular sieve operating at or below the temperature of the colder array may also be provided in this volume to remove the very low boiling point gases such as hydrogen. With the gases thus condensed and/or adsorbed onto the pumping surfaces, a vacuum is created in the work chamber.
In systems cooled by closed cycle coolers, the cooler is typically a two-stage refrigerator having a cold finger which extends through the rear or side of the radiation shield. High pressure helium refrigerant is generally delivered to the cryocooler through high pressure lines from a compressor assembly. Electrical power to a displacer drive motor in the cooler is usually also delivered through the compressor or a controller assembly.
The cold end of the second, coldest stage of the cryocooler is at the tip of the cold finger. The primary pumping surface, or cryopanel, is connected to a heat sink at the coldest end of the second stage of the cold finger. This cryopanel may be a simple metal plate or cup or an array of metal baffles arranged around and connected to the second-stage heat sink. This second-stage cryopanel also supports the low temperature adsorbent.
The radiation shield is connected to a heat sink, or heat station, at the coldest end of the first stage of the refrigerator. The shield surrounds the second-stage cryopanel in such a way as to protect it from radiant heat. The frontal array is cooled by the first-stage heat sink by attachment to the radiation shield or, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,810, through thermal struts.
After several days or weeks of use, the gases which have condensed onto the cryopanels, and in particular the gases which are adsorbed, begin to saturate the cryopump. A regeneration procedure must then be followed to warm the cryopump and thus release the gases and remove the gases from the system. As the gases evaporate, the pressure in the cryopump increases, and the gases are exhausted through a relief valve. During regeneration, the cryopump is often purged with warm nitrogen gas. The nitrogen gas hastens warming of the cryopanels and also serves to flush water and other vapors from the cryopump. Nitrogen is the usual purge gas because it is relatively inert, and is available free of water vapor. It is usually delivered from a nitrogen storage bottle through a transfer line and a purge valve coupled to the cryopump.
After the cryopump is purged, it must be rough pumped to produce a vacuum around the cryopumping surfaces and cold finger which reduces heat transfer by gas conduction and thus enables the cryocooler to cool to normal operating temperatures. The roughing pump is generally a mechanical pump coupled through a fluid line to a roughing valve mounted to the cryopump.
Control of the regeneration process is facilitated by temperature sensors coupled to the cold finger heat stations. Thermocouple pressure gauges have also been used with cryopumps. Although regeneration may be controlled by manually turning the cryocooler off and on and manually controlling the purge and roughing valves, a separate regeneration controller is used in more sophisticated systems. Wires from the controller are coupled to each of the sensors, the cryocooler motor and the valves to be actuated. A cryopump having an integral electronic controller is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,930.
The typical regeneration process takes several hours during which the manufacturing or other process for which the cryopump creates a vacuum must idle. Substantial efforts have been made to reduce that regeneration time.